Wedding Jitters
by steepedinshadows419
Summary: 4x08 - Barry and Iris take wedding pictures before the ceremony. Barry/Iris. One-shot.


**A/N**: From my recollection...this fic was written as a reward for my tumblr followers when they helped contribute to finding songs for my friend for a crack vid she was making. But **westallen94** (Ruthie) also requested it ages ago, so it's officially dedicated to her. I hope you enjoy!

*****Many thanks to **sendtherain** for beta'ing.

*I own nothing. No copyright infringement intended.

* * *

Barry was pacing – and sweating, by the looks of it – when Joe found him. Which wasn't particularly good, since he was already in his tux, regardless of his ability to shower at superspeed. Barry's hands were clenching and unclenching, and his jaw was rigid. Nerves were one thing, but Joe hadn't seen him this nervous in… Well, ever. Quite honestly, he wondered what it could be, since he knew this man was incapable of having cold feet about marrying the love of his life.

Joe knocked on the door frame of Barry's dressing room, even though there was no one in there but the groom, because obviously he was lost in his own head.

"Bear?"

He came to a sudden halt, then met Joe's gaze with a fierce one, a panicked one.

"Is everything all right?" Joe asked, hesitantly.

"What?" Barry squeaked. "Yeah," he brushed it off with a shrug of his shoulders. "Yeah, everything's fine. Why wouldn't it be?" He looked away quickly, fiddling with the cuffs of his jacket.

Joe raised his eyebrows and walked towards him.

"Because you're acting weird, and I know for a fact it's not because you have cold feet."

Barry met Joe's gaze with wild eyes and his jaw dropped, confirming that fact.

"So, what is it?" he asked, straightening out Barry's jacket that had its buttons mismatched and the collar flipped back on one side. "You nervous about saying your vows in front of so many people?"

Barry's silence made Joe look at him again, also confirming that fact.

"Are your vows ready?"

"They're too long."

Joe frowned.

Barry glanced over at the pile of papers sitting on the table by the mirror. Joe walked over and flipped through the stack of single-spaced pages.

"Jesus, Bear, how-"

"Thirty-eight pages."

Joe turned to face him, and his mouth fell open. He had to consciously remind himself not to let the stack slip through his fingers.

Barry quickly crossed the room to take the pages from Joe's hand and neatly set them back on the table.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to say all of that."

Joe relaxed some. "Well, I suppose it's not like you have it memorize-"

Barry's shifting stance said otherwise.

"Oh, God."

"I've been in love with Iris forever, Joe. You think I just started writing these after we got engaged?"

Joe felt his heart swell inside of his chest.

"I talked to Oliver, though, and he said I'll just know when the time comes." He shrugged. "I'm not worried."

That line of thought mildly concerned Joe, but inevitably he decided not to get his soon-to-be son-in-law worked up even more if that wasn't what was bothering him. If he felt confident regarding his vows, he wouldn't dissuade him.

"So, then what is it?"

Barry heaved a heavy sigh.

"Iris wants to take pictures before the wedding."

Joe blinked. Barry glanced at his watch.

"In exactly fifteen minutes, she wants to meet up with me in the sanctuary and take our wedding pictures."

Joe's brows furrowed.

"So, what's the problem?"

Barry looked at him, exasperated.

"Iris has been so worried about me seeing her before the wedding and now she wants me to see her in her wedding dress before the ceremony even starts!"

The amused expression on Joe's face was not lost on him.

"You can't possibly think it'll be bad luck."

"No, of course not," he said, looking annoyed. "It's just that…" he sighed.

"What?"

"The first time I saw her in her wedding dress, I wanted it to be of her walking down the aisle. That moment is supposed to be…magical. It's supposed to knock the wind out of me. I'm supposed to see no one in the room except for her. Everything else is supposed to fade away."

"And you think all of that won't happen if you see her before the wedding?"

Barry shrugged.

"Son." Joe wrapped his arm around Barry's shoulders. "Do you think my daughter is beautiful?"

"Of course."

"The most stunning woman you've ever laid your eyes on?"

"She's perfect."

"Then don't worry about it."

"But, Joe-"

"When you're standing at the end of the aisle, and the music starts, and the doors open, and she walks in on my arm, you're going to be more spellbound than you've ever been. That will be _the_ moment. Seeing her in her dress for pictures an hour before the ceremony won't take away from that."

Barry looked at him, wanting to believe. He'd reassured Iris countless times that him seeing her in her trial wedding dress didn't mean bad luck for their wedding, and it didn't take away from their big day at all. But somehow this felt different. He'd been looking forward to this moment for his entire life. He didn't want anything to taint it.

"Okay?" Joe interrupted his thoughts.

"Okay." Barry nodded.

Vibrations in his pocket reminded him he had ten minutes until Iris wanted to meet him in the hall.

"Think I need to shower again?" Barry asked, looking at him.

Joe glanced over at the sweat on his brow and his hair drenched on the back of his head, as well as the damp spots on his button-down shirt, and nodded.

"Yeah, that might be a good idea."

"I'll grab your spare tux from the closet."

By the time Joe had grabbed the hanger, Barry was out and clothed and Joe's hand was already empty.

"How do I look?" Barry turned around in a slow circle.

Joe smiled. "The best I've ever seen you."

His pale cheeks turned a soft pink as he briefly avoided his father-in-law's gaze.

"Thanks, Joe."

"Tell Iris hi for me. I'll be in when the two of you are done."

Barry took a deep breath and stared at the open doorway.

"Okay. Here I go."

…

Iris West was not pacing. She was not.

She could not afford to get sweaty before the ceremony and ruin all the great care and detail that had gone into her hair and make-up.

Besides, she wasn't even nervous. This was _Barry_. Her husband-to-be in just one short hour. She wasn't having cold feet, and she had a very hard time imagining him having cold feet. Plus, he was only wearing a tux. She'd seen him in tuxes before. Even gone with him to try them on in the early stages.

But okay, she had just texted him half an hour ago that she wanted them to take their pictures before the ceremony. It hadn't taken much convincing from the rest of the wedding party, and the photographer obviously had no problem with it. If she was careful, she'd still look glorious when it came time for her to meet her dad outside the door to the sanctuary.

But Barry – he had taken a whole three minutes to respond to her text with an _ok_.

Barry rarely kept his texts short and sweet. And today of all days, he didn't even have a question about it? After how much she'd stressed not wanting him to see her before the wedding, especially in her wedding dress? He obviously didn't want to alarm or argue with her on their wedding day, but his minimal response was alarming in and of itself, and she wondered if her throwing her worries out the window and saving some time between ceremony and reception by taking the pictures ahead of time was really the best thing to do – especially at the last minute.

But just as she was about to send her mind into another whirl of nerve-wracking thoughts, she heard the door quietly open. When she turned to see who it was, her heart thudding loudly in her chest, she saw Barry Allen staring at her like she was the reason science made sense and not looking too shabby himself.

"Hey there," she said softly, suddenly unbearably shy.

Barry met her eyes, marveling at the beauty he saw there.

"Hey."

"I'm sorry this was so last minute, I-"

"You look beautiful, Iris," he said, cutting her off as he came towards her.

Speechless, she let him take her hands and marvel at what was before him.

His hands skimmed up her arms and over her collarbone. It tickled when they trailed up her neck, and she nearly melted into him when he cupped her cheeks.

"I get to marry you?" he asked, more spellbound than she'd ever seen him.

"Yeah," she said, struggling to get the word out.

"Wow," he whispered reverently. "How did I get to be so lucky?"

She wanted so badly to respond to him, to tell him how lucky _she_ felt, how mesmerized she was by him, even if he was only in a simple tux, how charmed she was by the gentlemanly hairstyle he'd chosen, and to confess her worries to him about her sudden change of plans.

But he had her frozen in place, her mind gone blank. She was lost in those deep green eyes of his that told more clearly than words ever could how much he loved her and how beautiful he thought she was.

A knock on the door interrupted the stolen moment, and the photographer walked in.

"Are you two rea-" He stopped suddenly, aware of his obvious intrusion. "I can come back."

"No, no." Iris shook her head, not breaking away from Barry for a second but tilting her head to the man addressing them so she could give a clear answer. "We're ready. Come on in."

"We are?" Barry asked, a devilish grin on his face when she met his eyes again.

She smiled in response and pulled his head down to hers for a sweet pre-wedding kiss.

"I think we are," she whispered. When they turned around, they were beaming so wide the photographer hardly had to give them any direction.

After a series of shots were taken, the rest of the wedding party and Joe were brought in for the wider scale pictures. When it was all over, Barry and Iris had a hard time separating, their fingers clinging to each other's until the last possible moment, but all worries about seeing each other ahead of time had vanished.

Before leaving his dressing room to head into the sanctuary for the ceremony, Barry picked up his phone and called his wife to be.

"You're so beautiful, Iris," he said, before she could say a word. And she couldn't even after that because she was so overwhelmed with love for this man she was about to marry.

"I can't wait to marry you."

Her eyes filled with tears that she prayed wouldn't ruin her make-up. But she still couldn't respond before he ended the call.

Instead, she opened a text message and sent him what was in her heart.

_I love you._

…

In the end, Barry needn't have worried about not feeling the height of emotion from watching Iris walk down the aisle since he'd seen her before. If he thought he'd been swept away by her beauty when they'd taken pictures, the feeling magnified ten times over when he saw her walk through the door on Joe's arm. His heart burst through his chest. Somehow, she looked even more beautiful than before. With Kara singing his love song to Iris and Iris' eyes rarely leaving his, he knew he'd never been happier, never felt so in love, so sure and hopeful for the future.

Today he was marrying the love of his life, Iris West, a dream he'd abandoned more than once. But no matter what else happened in their lives, they would always have this. This moment, this day, their hearts sworn to each other forever.

He beamed down at her, now before him again.

_She picked me_, he thought, captivated. _She picked __**me**_.


End file.
